Zion: Light of the New Moon, Ch 5.4 Shrad
Zion - Light of the New Moon Chapter 5.4
Shrad Peace in Pieces
The group moves in to check out the wreckage of the old caravan along with Guardsman Sten, two of Loric's Guards, Loric's manservant Guthrey, and the High Priest's dozen personal guards. That should be more than enough to handle any problems that might arise... right?
It didn't take long before the various workers at the wreckage saw the incoming threat: a dozen large forms descending from the sky. They started looking for cover, diving for protection, drawing weapons, or any of a number of chaotic activities. Majh alone stood in the center of the wreckage, double-bladed war axe at the ready as she waited, biding her time for the creatures to draw closer. Tolen scampered toward her with Gaerid moving quickly after.
"What are they?" the arctic fox questioned, cowering near the priestess.
"Chimeras." she answered, watching them as they drew closer.
"Chimeras do not travel in flocks." Gaerid responded.
"Correct... not usually, anyway." the hyena acknowledged.
"They're under a spell..." Tolen guessed.
"No..." Gaerid said, his voice suddenly going quiet as all the fur on his body raised, "something else..." and his weapon came quickly to paw.
"Yea..." Majh chuckled, "it's 'something else'."
A powerful flash lit the sky as divine energy was brought to bear against the attacking draconids. Amidst the large collection of chimera, one was singled out by a blast of divine might, and was sent plummeting to the ground, dead before impact. A cheer went up from the caravan as shouts of encouragement for the High Priest and praise of Tah'Aveen filled the air.
"You idiot..." Majh cursed beneath her breath. She watched as the entire flock veered toward the caravan, "I'm going to regret this..." she scowled, and raised her voice and paws skyward, replicating the same blast that downed the first, and her prayer downed another.
The chimera split into two groups; the majority of them took a bead on the caravan while four lined themselves up to swoop down at the wreckage, "It's a start, at least." the hyena said to herself.
"You idiot!" Loric shouted, "You caught their attention!"
"That's the point." Majh noted quietly.
"They're gonna breathe!" Nori shouted, interrupting another insult from Lord Kriabnish. Everyone started diving behind cover as the Chimeras swooped in low; Majh was the only exception. She continued to stand in the open ground at the center of the wreckage, axe at the ready, staring up at the approaching draconids. As one, the creatures opened their maws wide... and breathed.
The caravan, in a perfect line on the Highway, was lit up like candles on a prayer bench. People scrambled for cover, some trying to avoid the heat, others trying to find a way to extinguish their burning clothes... fur... bodies. In a single pass, the Chimeras had all but wiped out the travelers, and very few wagons were spared the burning fire.
The High Priest and his guards, between the caravan and the wreckage, were completely consumed by the flame, blocked out entirely from view as the conflagration covered them. Fresh screams and cries rose up from the caravan and from any who saw the High Priest's entourage disappear amidst the fire. As the flame breath passed, it was obvious that not a single individual among them remained standing... not even the bear.
"Goddess damn it..." Majh cursed, and was just about to head that direction when she was forced to pause; the flame came at them next. Cries from the caravan, however, were overshadowed by the roar of flame as the party in the wreckage was surrounded by a blazing inferno; the Chimeras were accurate, and deadly with their fire. "This will suck." the hyena sighed, and the world around her disappeared as she was covered in flame.
As the flame descended, Gaerid grabbed hold of Tolen by the robe and pulled the fox under the cover of a burned out wagon. There wasn't enough room for the both of them, but Tolen was protected from the worst of the fire by the rottweiler's body atop him. The bounty hunter let out a groan, rolling off of the fox, smoke and steam popping and sizzling up off his burned back.
Nori, raised his paws overhead and a shell of energy cascaded over him, turning aside the numerous flame breaths and leaving the circle of ground beneath his protective shield the only one untouched by the fire. Shadow, who was right beside Nori, was not close enough to enjoy the direct protection from the magic, but he weathered the worst of it by ducking behind the energy as the flame passed over.
Loric's guards pressed in close, pushing the fox back behind the cover of a rock as they knelt down, holding their shields up to provide a firebreak. Lord Kriabnish yelped in pain as the rock itself burned his back from the sheer heat it conducted, and he quickly scrambled over the charred corpses of his guards to escape the searing temperature from the stone... not that he was any better off standing amidst the fire-seared ground, emerging out onto crumbled glass.
The Chimeras swooped in for a landing, touching down amidst the northern point of the burned area, spinning around as they each roared, snarled, and bleated with all three of their respective heads. "Get them!" Shadow roared, holding out a claw at the nearest Chimera. A powerful jolt of energy crackled its way down his arm, and then arced the distance to his target; the wolf paused when the Chimera just shrugged it off, and Shadow then took a step back when he realized he had gained its attention.
"Chimeras are Draconids... they're resistant to 'weak' magic." Nori stressed, stepping past Shadow as the ferret unleashed a crackling lightning blast of his own. The Chimera roared as the electricity arced across its body, making it convulse several times before collapsing, "See?" the Wild Lander smirked in satisfaction.
"Yea..." Shadow acknowledged, watching as the Chimera picked itself back up off the ground, shook itself out, and then glared at the two of them with renewed fury, "I see..." They each stepped back.
The Chimera launched forward, its lion head leading with its maw opened wide. Shadow dived to the side, but Nori was too slow in getting his hammer up to block, and let out a cry of pain as the creature's dagger-like teeth tore into his arm. The Chimera's dragon head snapped at Shadow, who barely managed to evade it by continuing his dive as a roll.
Nori, still caught by the arm, maneuvered his grip on his hammer, and made a clumsy swing for the lion head's neck... but the attack bounced harmlessly off the Chimera's hide. Shadow, springing to his feet after the roll, changed his trajectory and launched himself at the dragon head, but was knocked clean out of the air by the chimera's snake-like tail. Fortunately, the distraction was enough for the ferret to leverage his hammer between the lion's jaws, and pry it open. Shadow and Nori stood next to one another, panting heavily as the Chimera circled, readying its next attack.
Gaerid and Tolen were forced to react quickly as one of the Chimeras pounced their cover, shattering the wagon moments after they climbed free. The beast lashed out with its front talons, sending Tolen spinning to the ground as it laid open his back with four huge, deep slashes... and the fox lay still. Gaerid quickly moved to aid him, but was forced to leap back as the Chimera's ram-head butted at him with its horns.
Spinning around to avoid the attack at the last moment, the bounty hunter brought his sword down and drove its tip right through the ram's eye. The blade was yanked from his grasp as the Chimera reared back, the lion and dragon heads snarling out in pain as the goat head hung uselessly on its limp neck. "Tolen... get up, or you're dinner." the rottweiler warned... but the fox remained unmoving. "Wyse!" he barked, and the dog obediently moved in, grabbed hold of Tolen by the robe, and began dragging him to safety. Letting out a sigh, Gaerid drew his second blade, and launched to the attack again, but was forced to abort as a wicked talon came within inch of taking off his head, forcing him back.
"Get up, you fat weasel!" Guardsman Sten demanded of Loric's man-in-waiting. Guthrey squealed, squirming in an attempt to get back under cover of a wrecked wagon. "It's not safe in there! They'll crush--- oh fuck it." the otter stepped back, leaping away at the last moment as a Chimera landed atop the wreckage. Circling slowly, the guardsman took the opportunity to carefully move away from the Chimera as its attention remained on the struggling stoat within the crumpled wagon.
Timing his action, the guard rushed forward, mindful to avoid a battle cry until his sword was lodged in the Chimera's back right between its wings. The creature rolled off of the wreckage, flapping wildly as Guardsman Sten worked to maintain his balance on its back. "Can't get me while I'm up here, can ya?" he demanded of it, twisting his blade as he pushed it deeper. The lion and the hart head of the creature screamed in pain, but the dragon head, turning completely around with its flexible neck, let out a roar of a much more ferocious nature. "I stand corrected." the otter quickly pulled his blade free, and bailed off the side of the beast, narrowly avoiding the dragon head's snapping jaws.
The Chimera turned to follow after Guardsman Sten, but it suddenly jerked violently, and fell to the side. Loric climbed down from atop it, wiping his paws against one another, "Alright... so they aren't that resistant to poison." he offered casually.
"What are you doing with poison, exactly?" the otter inquired.
"Killing Chimeras..." the arctic fox noted simply, "...obviously."
"I assume you have a permit?" Guardsman Sten inquired with a smirk.
"Of course not... I'm just holding it for a friend." Loric winked, and pulled out a new blade, and a new vial, "...obviously."
"I am disquieted..." a powerful, rage-filled voice called everyone's attention to the enormous pyre of flame rising up from the center of the wreckage. Majh strode purposefully toward the gathering of Chimera, emerging from the raging inferno with her metal armor glowing red hot from the heat. Not a single fur on her hide appeared to have been damaged, and she ignored the burning aura of shimmering air that surrounded her due to her glowing metal armor, "You poor creatures... it's a shame you had to get involved..."
"Magnificent." Guardsman Sten murmured appreciatively.
"Unbelievable." Loric gasped.
"How can that be?" Shadow questioned.
"No way..." Nori gaped.
"I thought so." Gaerid smiled to himself.
As one, the remaining Chimera at the wreckage site turned to regard Majh. The growled, hissed, roared, bleated, and snarled, but she simply strode toward them, axe still burning from the heat of the fire, "You don't set me on fire..." the hyena growled, "That's just not how it's done." and, with a mighty heave, Majh Blackpaw slammed the butt of her war axe into the ground. Like a set of miniature explosions, fissures began to open in the earth, cracking their way to the beasts as they faced off against her. The moment the fissures reached them, they stopped... and enormous blasts of magma propelled the Chimeras up into the air. They all fell to the ground, charred beyond recognition.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!?!" Majh roared to the sky, "I KNOW IT'S YOU, RALISIEV! SHOW YOURSELF!"
"Ralisiev?" Nori asked, his fur puffing up as his ears fell to either side of his head, "Did she say Ral-i-see-ev?"
"Yes..." Shadow acknowledged, glancing to the ferret, "Why? Do you know the name?"
Nori backpedaled, "No... but..." his eyes were wide in fear, "that.... that's a dragon's name..."
"Hogwash." Loric sneered, moving to join the two with Guardsman Sten in hot pursuit, "Dragons haven't been around for centuries." The earth gave a jump, and everyone was thrown to the ground. Huge sections of stone lifted skyward and large protrusions that looked like dead trees rose high out of the countryside. What had once appeared to have been an irregular hill shook off dirt and stone, revealing enormous, shield-sized red scales.
"Try telling that to a dragon." Gaerid noted, as wide-eyed as the rest as the gigantic creature emerged from the earth.
The dragon slowly curled its enormous bulk around to face the wreckage, each step a miniature earthquake as it turned toward the party. Wisps of flame the size of a bonfire trailed from its nostrils, little more than a candle flame to the colossal beast. It moved its head this-way-and-that, gazing at those assembled with its left eye, "I know you..." it announced in perfect imperial. Everyone dropped their weapons, covering their ears to protect them against the power of the dragon's speaking voice.
"Good!" Majh announced, "You should!"
"I was hoping to find you again one day." the enormous beast spoke, calmly and slowly, but the words were dripping with as much vitriol as the dragon's maw was dripping magma, drawing deep scars in the earth as its burning spittle seared through the stone.
"So I can finish what I started?" Majh sneered, "Because from where I'm standing, with you responsible for so many slain, that's what it's looking like." the hyena hefted her axe menacingly or, rather, it would have been menacingly if her target were something other than the mountain-sized creature before her.
"I still owe you for last time..." the dragon rumbled, fresh licks of flame emerging from its maw, billowing tongues of blue and white fire as it sneered down at the hyena. It turned its head the other way, revealing a discolored and cloudy eye, ridge above it and cheek below it split open by an old scar, "I'm not as inexperienced as I was back then..."
"Back then?" Loric asked of nobody in particular, "How fast to dragons grow?!?"
"Congratulations..." Majh responded, still holding her axe at the ready, "You can add a few dozen burned wagons to your list of trophies?"
"She should NOT be taunting it." Nori noted, almost twenty feet behind the rest of the group; the Wild Lander continued shuffling back.
"We could have been so good together..." the dragon hissed, his tongue curling angrily at the end of his muzzle.
"There never was a 'we', Ralisiev... not while you paid homage to the Sun Goddess." Majh scowled, brandishing her axe, "...and this... atrocity... it's just more proof of your deranged view of the world."
"A 'we'?" Loric inquired, "If I wasn't so scared for my life, I might want to hear more." he licked his muzzle despite his reservations, "A hyena and a dragon... would that even work?"
"The old stories told of Dragons taking the forms of mortals..." Shadow explained, "and it was said that, if--"
"I could have loved you!" the dragon bellowed, knocking everyone flat from the force of his admission, save Majh, who held her stance.
"You never could love anyone but yourself... even your misguided faith in Tah'Alia is just narcissism."
Guardsman Sten chuckled quietly to himself, "Another jilted lover... Majh certainly has quite a record..."
The hyena began stalking forward, "Enough, Ralisiev... I left you alive last time... but I won't make that mistake again."
The gigantic dragon laughed, the loud, rumbling sound causing the few remaining trees near him to fall, "No... not this time, I think..." and, with a single, casual step, he brought a front talon straight down on the hyena. He dug an enormous groove on the earth, pulling aloft his talon of earth and Majh remains, and rose up to his hind legs, his wings extending and, with the force of a hundred hurricanes, he launched himself skyward, his voice echoing powerfully behind him, "I'm done here... Kill them, minions... kill every last one of them... and burn the bodies."
A powerful burst of light blinded everyone but, as their vision cleared, the dead and dying bodies of the Chimeras rose up, their wounds healing in a matter of seconds. "We killed them once..." Shadow noted, the bravado in his voice doing a poor job of covering up his trepidation as he took a tentative step back, "We can do it again."
Loric glanced toward the wolf, then to a nearby hole in the ground, "Hmm... yea... good luck with that... I think I see a better option."
"We can't leave the caravan..." Shadow countered
"It's a smoldering line of burned out wagons... I don't think anyone's left to care." Nori stated, stepping further back, glancing toward a thick line of trees.
Gaerid held a paw out and Wyse, body half-burned, trotted over to return the rottweiler's blade to him. The bounty hunter looked around at the assembled party, "I will not stray from my path... I WILL get to Zion."
"Our High Priest was fried... our Commander was crushed..." Guardsman Sten noted, "At this point, I think we need to worry about living."
"Then do whatever it is you plan on doing." Shadow stated, "There are still survivors here, and I can't just leave them."
"Somebody wants to be a hero..." Loric noted, "That's fine... just remember that heroes don't live long lives." and the arctic fox turned about to leave... until he came to a stop, seeing four more Chimeras behind the party, "Well... isn't this just dandy?"
* * * * * *
Welcome, Zion fans, to the last post of Chapter 5 for the Shradian Caravan. This also happens to be the last post before the Milestone.
At this point, I feel obligated to note that the group has sustained an enormous amount of damage and, since we're not yet moving to the next chapter, these injuries and the fatigue will remain... this means that the group is hardly fighting-fit... and short a few members.
That being said, it is up to the Contributing Readers to decide just how they will enter the Milestone. Please keep in mind that the theme of Milestone 1 is "Loss", which is to say, this is a very VERY dangerous Milestone. So, keeping that in mind,Contributing Readers are encouraged to look at the following options and choose the one they find most fitting.
Unlike prior voting opportunities, the Milestone vote also includes pros and cons of each option along with different ways to view it. As always, the highest number of votes win.
1) Kill the beasts and save the day! Positive Viewpoint: The Chimeras were defeated once, so they CAN be defeated again... time to start fighting. Negative Viewpoint: The group was a lot stronger during the first match against the draconids, and in better health. Pro: If the party can turn the tide and protectwhat remains of the caravan, then there are still people that can be saved! Con: Out of all of the options, this one carries with it the most risk and will provide non-contribiting reader voters a negative in their attempt to keep characters alive.
2) Make for the underground! Positive Viewpoint: The tunnels leading underground should keep the party safe until the Chimeras leave. Negative Viewpoint: While the Chimeras stay, the survivors of the caravan will be at their mercy. Pro: The party is practically guaranteed a quick and healthy hideaway Con: While the party is hiding the Chimeras will almost certainly destroy anyone not able to run for cover.
3) Make for the woods! Positive Viewpoint: A mad dash to the forest should keep the Chimeras' attention on the party and HOPEFULLY keep them from killing anyone else back at the caravan. Negative Viewpoint: Distracting the Chimeras AND hoping to get away is asking for a lot. Pro: Out of the three defined options, this one provides the possibility of the group saving itself and a portion of the caravan. Con: Out of the three defined options, this one exposes the party to risk and still doesn't guarantee the safety of the caravan survivors.
4) SCATTER! Run for it in all different directions. Positive Viewpoint: This is a very risky maneuver that could pay off big. Negative Viewpoint: This is a very risky maneuver that could really blow up in the caravan's face. Pro: This option greatly increases a given individual's chance for survival. Con: People are going to die... and that means LOTS of people.
Contributing Readers will have until midnight on Saturday, September 17th to place their vote. A unanimous vote will result in a minor benefit to the party. Any non-participation by a Contributing Reader will result in double the normal penalization.